All those charges—which Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt ’74 called “bogus” Tuesday—were dropped for lack of evidence.
The spotlight soon turned on Byrne, as both the BPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began to look into Trombly’s allegation that the sergeant had viciously beat him in the District 14 station house.
Byrne was indicted in January 2002 on the federal charges currently being tried; his day in court has been delayed since then by numerous legal squabbles and continuances.
Yesterday Lynch recounted his version of the alleged beating. He also disputed several key details of the sequence of events put forth by the defense on Tuesday.
Lynch insisted that he had confiscated Trombly’s cell phone on the street at the time of arrest—contradicting Libby’s assertion that Trombly still had the phone in his pocket while being uncuffed in the station house.
Merritt also led Lynch through a series of questions concerning the alleged witness tampering. Lynch testified that as investigators began to look into Trombly’s allegations, his partner had delivered a verbal message to him from Byrne instructing him “to say that nothing happened.”
Under cross-examination from Libby, Lynch clarified that Byrne had not explicitly told him to lie to authorities.
Libby spent much of his cross-examination attempting to undermine the credibility of Lynch’s testimony, asking repeatedly if the officer had been intimidated by federal agents. He suggested that Lynch might have feared he would face a perjury charge if he gave answers contrary to those desired by the prosecution, a claim which Lynch adamantly denied.
Kristen Scheier, who lived in the same Commonwealth Ave. apartment building as Trombly’s friend, followed Lynch to the stand, testifying that she saw Byrne angrily taunting Leahy on the night of Trombly’s arrest.
Yesterday’s testimony was closed out by Harrigan, the other BPD officer.
Harrigan told jurors that he was outside the Brighton station house talking to another officer when he caught sight of Byrne and Trombly acting unusually through the station’s windows. He said that once he entered the guard room he saw Byrne swearing at Trombly as he grabbed him with one hand and hit him with the other. Harrigan said he did not see Trombly fight back.
Harrigan also testified that Byrne had initiated a conversation with him several days later, telling him that federal investigators were scrutinizing his treatment of Trombly and that there was nothing to report to them.
While cross-examining Harrigan, defense attorney R. Matthew Rickman displayed an enlarged photograph taken outside the station house in an effort to cast doubt on whether the witness could have clearly seen Trombly or Byrne from his stated angle and position.
Rickman then questioned whether an air conditioner, partially blocking the view of the guard room in the photograph, would have been removed for the winter by September that year. Harrigan replied that he was not sure.
Judge Richard G. Stearns concluded the day’s session promptly at 1 p.m., midway through Harrigan’s testimony.
The trial resumes today, and is scheduled to run until Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.